We have to start letting consumers know the problems of outsourcing to save a dollar in real estate. Not many people that own a home even know we exist as a part of their transaction! I belong to a local forum and over the weekend let about 9,000 people know that there is a problem and not to be afraid to ask their title company who is performing there search.

   First I explained what it is we do. LOL. Local agent chimed in and said the title company your choose works for you and don't be afraid to ask for a local abstractor.  I talked about online searching, rules that can change at any moment and the only way to know about them is to physically go into a courthouse and see a notice taped to the wall etc.... Just so happens, one of the counties here in MD posted a change taped to the wall about searching for federal liens. They are not  entered in to the computer system (not MD case search,which they never were anyway), but no longer into courthouses internal system. This is a problem for those only ordering judgment reports. Hope they have someone you knows what they are doing checking for them. They have someone checking for updates, but not everyday and only for one judgement report company. This is one of the many reasons we need to support local business!  I'm not finished yet. I plan on reaching even more to consumers around Maryland. I received a pretty good response so far.  I know plenty of people that are forced to use overseas companies and they tell me the everyday issues they have and what a frustrating mess it can be. If we all do the same maybe we can begin to make a real change and bring back real quality local abstracting.

On a side note..I'm curious how those states that require an abstractor license fair. Do companies tend to use local licensed abstractors rather that offshore or even out of state? Pros vs. cons